Milling machine



Dec.' 8, 41931.

v. E. FLoplN MILLING MACHINE Filed April 9, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 adoro Dec. 8,' 1931. V, E; FLODlN 1,835,290

MILLING MACHINE Filed April 9, 1928 V 4 sheets-Sheet 42 .Dec. 8, 1931. v. E. FLoDlN 1,835,290

MILLINGJ. MACHINE Filed April 9, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet I5 Dec. 8, 1931. v E, 'FLODIN 1,835,290

MILLING MACHINE Filed April 9, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 17 .J7 l 2Q Za 3l Jur/@wr en I Patented Dec. 8, 1931 vieron E. rnoniiv, cirrosi; rank, ILLINOIS,

iissianoiaY To YCRANE oo., or uniendo, im.;

. NOS, A' CORPORATION 0F ILLINOIS YiuILLING ivinciriivn Application `iled April 9,

This invention pertains to milling machines and the like, although it has more Vparticular reference to a mechanism primarily adapted to mill-out or machine parallel grooves or slots along the interior wallsof a hollow body.

The invention is peculiarly useful in connection with the manufacture of gate valves of the type described and claimed in my copending application Serial No. 268,484, led April 9, 1928, which use will be more fully described hereinafter for the purpose of illustration only.

Considering the ordinary gate valve, the

body, whether cast, forged or otherwise formed, is usually provided with one or more guide ribs, slots or grooves, on each side, for guiding the gate in its movements to and from `its seating position.y The gate itself, for such purpose, is likewise provided with l a cooperative rib or ribs, groove or grooves,

on each side, as the case may be, for engagement with or in the ribs, slots or grooves proif'ided'in the body.

Though many attempts have been made, I

no attempt `of a successful nature to fit the guides on the gate and body to or with oneanother in an extremely accurate fier. i The problems encountered in doo have been several, although one of the primary problems perhaps is the difficulty and eXp-ense of the necessary machining op'- erationsand the mating of parts thereafter. Onthe contrary,the almost invariable prac-` tice has been to machine theguides or guide surfaces on the gate or disc in amore or lessA supercial way, `leaving the cooperative surfaces on the body rough while allowing suii'- cient clearancer between the guides on.; the gate and body Vtopermit raising 'and lower# ing of thegate in the bodywithout rubbingn engagement ofthe cooperative guide surfaces. Y In most casesa single guide rib is placed on each side ofthe valve body and'one of i such ribs is made considerably widerllater-` ally than the other so that the gate, which has itsguide slots milled out proportion'-V ately. to receive the ribs, may be inserted in tbc valve bodyin but one position. Some- 'Y times, however, manufacturers have disposed 1928. Serial No. 268,485'. n

the guide ribs unsymmetrically' in the i body to obtain the `same result, and then too, there'` are instances, even where the guide ribs `'have been disposed symmetrically in the body, the .l

methods of machining or fitting have not permitted reversibility in seating the gate or disc because vof what have heretofore -been thought to be insurmountable, inherent inaccuracies; thus-,for example, when repair gates oi' discs have'been orderedit has been necessaryv in a large proportion-Tof the cases to have the body as well las the gate on hand in order to fit them properly, and the down-f stream face and upstreamV face, pressure side ofthe gate or disc, must necessarily match their respectivelv cooperative faces in the bodv. L

However, with such construction, Wear on the parts is inevitablyconsiderable, and thereforeextremely objectionable. A 'With any dif-V ference ofpressures on. opposite sides of the gate, the gate will be forced toward theside of least pressure during its opening and closing movements which will in turn cause rubbing of the seat surfaces andguidel surfaces and the rapid wearing away of both whether or not the guide suifacesare machined. Then too,when the clearance between the guiding surfaces is greater than say 0.01 of' an inch on a side (it is usually about 0.05 of an inch), it not infrequently happens that fbinding,

fgalling, chattering and hammering ofV the gate in the body results, which `tends materiallyfto shorten-.the life o-f this type `of valve causing to' leak and become unserviceable. I

Thereis another undesirableresult encounsV Y tered with prior gate valveconst ructioi'is.v 'It has been practically impossible' to standardi-V ize thevalves so thattheir parts, theirbodies,

guides, bonnets etc., may be" interchanged without difficult andV expensive machining,

vfitting' and adjusting of such'partseach'time spending seat surfaces on the body seat rings.

It very seldom happens however that, when the fitting of the gate in the body has been completed, and the construction is such as to permit it, the gate may Vbe swung around 180o on its vertical axis and replaced in the body or replaced therein with a proper working Contact of the cooperative seat surfaces, and there is even less chance that a gate will fit in any position with a proper working contact against the body ring seat surfaces in any other body than the one in which it has been initially fitted.

The net result of manufacturing gate valves in this manner has been to increase their cost, well beyond what their cost should be, in order to absorb the costs of waste material, defective parts, etc., as well as to pay for a terrific amount of labor rendered necessary. Besides, each valve when finished is a handmade specialty, so to speak, and whenever such valve or one of its working parts becomes worn and must be renewed or replaced, it usually becomes necessary to remove the whole valve from the line and refit the worn part or fit a new part to the other parts, either on the premises or at the valve manufacture1"s factory. In either case great inconvenience, delay and expense, all of which might be saved if the valves and their parts could be standardized and made interchangeable, are often incurred.

Vilith the present invention similar and symmetrically disposed slots or grooves of great length in or along the interior walls of a hollow body, whether such body be a valve body or some otherv article, may be formed, milled, machined or finished, as the operation may be termed, with substantially absolute precision, and quickly and cheaply, permitting standardization, reversibility and intereha-ngeability of parts.

Accordingly, it becomes a primary object of the invention to provide a machine with which one, two or more slots or grooves may be milled in or along the interior walls of a hollow'body with the axis or axes of the slot, slots, groove or grooves, respectively, bearing a predetermined relationship to the axis of or a plane through the body or to one another and, if desired, to a plane through or the surface of such body generally transverse to the longitudinal axis of its hollow interior, and a machine which will mill such slots or grooves without variation from a fiXed line'of cutting regardless of the depthV or length or other characteristic of the slots or grooves. l

Another object is to provide in a milling machine an arrangement whereby one or more long spindled'cutters may be supported and braced at least adjacent the cutter teeth where the reaction from the cutting tending to bend, break or displace the'spindle is greatest, and an arrangement whereby two or more milling cutters of the long spindle type may simultaneously be guided and supported during and throughout the entire cxtent of their distance of travel in working in a body of the character specified.

Another object of the invention is to pro vinde a templet for cooperative use in combifnation with a cutting tool in connection with and as a part of the above mentioned machine and with a gate valve body or the like to permit the valve body to be rigidly secured and positioned with respect to the milling cutters whereby the guide slots or grooves in the valve body may be milled out or machined in such predetermined relationships, as above specified, and in the same relative predetermined relationships in successive valve bodies.

Many further objects. functions, uses and advantages of the invention, as well as the novelties and uses of the preferred form illustrated, will be or should become clearly apparent after reading the following descrip tion and claims, and after viewing the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view of one form of machine, temp'let and jig arrangement,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view taken on the line 2 2 of l, the milling machine chuck be ing removed.

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view of the apparatus shown in Fig. Q looking at the same from the right of Fig. 2,

Fig. 4i is a top plan view of the templet,

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the teinplet, and

Fig. 6 is a section taken on the line 6 6 of Fig. 5.

In order to afford a better understanding of what may be said. to be the primary purpose of my invention, that is, its use for cutting guide slots in the interior walls of a valve body chamber, a brief reference to the valve may not be amiss. The valve body generally designated 2 is to be provided with diametrically opposite guide slots or guideways 3 extending from. the top or adjacent the top of the valve chamber to a place at or adjacent the 1bottom thereof, all of which is to be determined by the length of the guide: or ribs on the gate, the extent of travel of the gate, the size, character andv proportions o? the valve body and gate, etc. The body, when initially cast, forged or otherwise formed'. is preferably provided in the usual manner with its guide slots or guideways roughed out to oversize dimensions to permit nishing by machine to the proper or final dimensions quired. After Sandblasting` or otherwise cleaning, the body is mounted in a lathe for the purpose of machining or finishing thel bonnet abutment or connecting face or bonnet flange face il, as it may be termed. This face must be machined off so that the plane thereofAwill lie at a predetermined angle with respect to one or more lplanesof symmetry of parts of the interior of .the body or to the axis of the body along which the valvegate will move. Generally and in thepresent instance, the plane of this surface will lieperpendicular tothe axis of thebody or valve chamber and toa plane of symmetry containing both theaXis of the body and thel axes or mean centers of curvature lof the guide-vways, grooves or guide slots. :Thus any two bodiesofvthe same type. and sizewilfl have similar bonnet abutmentfa'ces disposed inthe same predetermined relation to other'similar parts of those bodies. l Q

The interiorof the valvebody illustrated is .to be mad'e symmetric insofar as the guideways and seats are concerned'withfrespectlto a `plane to which the `line "of flow through the body is perpendicular. Likewise the gate for cooperation with 'theseats andguidee Ways of lthe body is to 4be made symmetric insofar as the seat surfaces and guides are concerned iwith respect Vto the same plane to which the line of flow through ,the bodyv is perpendicular.' The plane to which 'refer-l ence' is here` madevis that plane which coutains the axis of the valve chamber and the axes or mean centers of curvature of: the guide slots or grooves. Y Y

Following the finishingof the bonnet con-V nection surface or face 4 the bonnet connec Y tion flange bolt holes through which the bolts pass to connect the bonnet through thebody are located and drilled in-predetermined positicns and directions with respect to theapproximate axes of the rough guideways.

Y Thismay'be -donevin any suitable manner, al-

though I prefer to use La templet such asthat described in my copendingA application Serial No. 268,484 above mentioned. Thistemplet isV similar to the templet to vloe/describcdhere-` in in that it Vmay bea flat platehaving asur of apertures' through v'lhich thefdrillspasstoL drill `the bolt holes. With such templetg the bolt holes may be .drilled through. the'lange of the body in predetermined.positions with respect to theaforementioned,planesof sym# metry etc., and theib'ofdy is now ready to have ,the guide slots or guide grooves inilledout.

The milling machine in ,general comprises a relatively stationary chuck, generally 'des-V.

ignated 5, adapted to be attached in any suit able manner-'to a lathe',a drill pressorfotller.` machine the head ofwhich may beadvanced or retracted, or .depressed forraised, or which Y will permit the chuck 5 to be'a'dvanoed or retracted, depressed or raised, as the case may be, a bearing carrying member or plate, gen1@v will moreclearly appear. These'parts, their Y construction, arrangement, functions and operations will be takeniup specifically and.

in order as the description proceeds.`

The chuck 5 comprises a'casing 9 wlthln fwh'icha drive shaft 11 is rotatablyr mounted forconnection with any suitable source of power. Agear 12 securedV to the shaft 11 meshes with gears 13 and 14, also suitably mounted for rotation in the casing 9, so that Vone of thelast mentioned gears is driven in a clockwise direction and the other in an anticlockwise direction to equalize the driving torque. Each ofthe gears 13 andlll has a portion 15 projecting substantially through an 'aperture in thebottom of the casing of the chuck and each portion 15-is' provided with a socket into which the Morse tapered endsl-of milling cutter spindles 17 are received and secured against rotation. vThe spindles 1 7 are of sufficient length to extend the necessary distance into the body in which the milling operations are to beV performed to obtain the full length of cut desired.

f The plate 6 i-s secured to the chuck casing 5 in any suitable manner and is provided with apertures 18 .through which rods 19 connected at one end to the templet 7 are adapted topass with sufficient clearance to providev i-elative` sliding movements, and with apertures 21 in actual alignment with the axes of the gears 13 and 14. VBushings 22 provided with bosses extending into the apertures r21 and internally threaded, as shown at 423, are secured-to the plate 6 in any suitablemanner. Long bearings 24 for the spin dles 17 are provided with threaded' portions 25 .for engagement with the threads 23 in the reference to Fig. 1, the latter bearing area bcingcloselygadjacent the-milling cutters 28 removablysecured on the lower ends `of spindles 17. 1 Itisat once apparent that the 'bear` ing members .24;.1nay bel assembled uponfthe spindlesl7, vthe cutters l2.8A secured `to the ends ofthe spindles andV the assembly secured tov I thechuck.w .Y A Y In order properly to support and brace the `spindles Vand milling cutters against bending, breaking etc. which, because ofthe length of the spindles and the distance of lthe cutters 28- fromV their primary support in the chuck,- aresubjet to thetremendous leverage when in operation, the templet 7 between apertures 29 through which the milling cutters and their bearings are adapted to pass is-provided with a rigid boss or projection 31 which, in the present instance, on opposite sides, is arranged to receive U-shaped guides 32 which are secured to it by a. plurality of screws 33. The bearingl members 24 have a sliding fit in the guides 32 and are adapted to travel up and down the same as the chuck head is raised and lowered. l/llith this arrangement it is practically impossible for the cutters or spindles to `give while the critters are working.

The templet 7 not only serves to hold the milling cutter spindles and their bearings in proper alignment with one another and the cutters against any movement from their line of cutting, but also serves as a positioning and securing means for the valve or other body upon which the cutters are to operate. To this latter end its top and bottom faces 34 and 35, respectively, are planed off, the upper surface for cooperation with a part of the jigor fixture 8 'and the lower surface to provide an abutment surface against which the finished surface 4 of the valve body bonnet connection flange is positioned. Two or more pins or plugs 3G projecting` from the surface of the templet are adapted to closely lit within bolt holes 37 drilled through the valve body bonnet connection flange to secure the body against lateral or rotative movements. The rods 19 are equipped at their upper ends with adjustable nuts 38 and lock nuts '39 for the purpose of raising the templet 7 and its connected parts to the upper limits of the or fixture 8 after the chuck and milling cutters have been raised a predetermined distance. Thus these mechanisms are cleared out of the way of the valve bodj,7 so that the finished body may be removed and a second body inserted.

The or fixture 8, as above stated, includes a skeleton frame comprising a base 41, side members 42 preferably formed integral with the base, temporary valve body supportingY plates 43 secured along the tops of the side members 42 andV both juttingl inwardly over the base 41. two pairs of brackets 44 secu. ed to the sides 42`and Vto and between pairs of which rigid guide rods or bars 45 are secured, a. pair of truss bars 46 each at its ends mounted on the rods 45 with a 'close but sliding` fit thereabout, and a jack, 'gener1 ally designated 47. mounted ont the base 41. Each truss rod or bar 46 is provided -witlr a rib Lil-S the inner face'49 of which is machined to proivide an abutment shoulder adapted to abut against one side of the templet 7, while the adjacent under face 51 of each truss bar 46 is likewise finished providing an abutment shoulder against which a portion of the top face of the templet 7 is adapted to'abut. The jack 47. of course, has an adjustable head 52 raised or lowered through bevel gears 53 and 54 the latter of which is operated by a shaft 55 the outer end 56 to which a crank may be connected in any suitable manner.

In operation the chuck milling cutters and templet 7 being raised to their upper limits, the truss bars 46 being spread apart as wide as necessary to permit the templet 7 to be raised, and the head 52 of the jack being lowered, a valve body 2 is slid in perhaps from the right of Fig. 1 with its bonnet connection iange above the plates 43, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3. When the body has been set approximately 4in its proper position over the jack head and beneath the templet 7, the templet 7 is lowered a sufficient distance to permit the truss bars 4G to be brought together Vwith their shoulders 49 against the sides of the templet, whereupon the jack is operated to carry the valve body upwardly until its upper surface 4 seats against the surface 35 with the pins 36 in the proper holes 37 and the top surface 34 of the templet 7 abuts tightly against the surfaces 51 of the truss bars 46. When the body has been thus centered and positioned the milling tools may be fed downwardly into the body fast as the kind of metal of the body and the cutters will permit. The cutting of two or more grooves progresses simultaneously and is therefore very speedy, and because of the construction and arrangement above described, practically absolute accuracy is attained. When cutting guide grooves in a gate valve body of the character illustrated and described herein the axes of the slots or grooves are absolutely parallel and can delinitelybe made to lie in adesired plane bearing a predetermined relationship to the surface 4 of the valve body bonnet connection flange.

While I have shown and described what is at present a preferred form of the invention and one of its uses, it will be understood and appreciated that many variations and modifications may be made therein by those skilled inthe art without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

I claim: j

1. A device of the character described comprising, means for positioninga hollow body having an opening between its exterior and interior, means rigidly secured to said positioning means adapted to project within said bodyV through .said opening when the body is positioned, a cutter spindle, a cutter thereon for operating upon the interior surface ofsaid body, an elongated bearing for said cutter spindle and means on. said rigidly secured means for'guiding said spindle bearing when in the body..

2. A device of the character described com prising, a templet having a surface adapted to abut against the top surface of a valve body bonnet-connection frange, means for supporting a valve body against said surface,

a tool for operating upon theinterior surface of said body and a projection on said templet,V adjacent said surface and adapted to extend into the valve body cavity, said projection ported on said templet and tool guide means secured to said templet and adapted to project into the valve chamber of a valve body positioned against said lsurface to guide said tool into said body.

t. In a machine for milling a surface on the interior of a hollow body, a milling tool, means for supporting and positioning the hollow body in operative relation to said tool, means for operating said tool, means for moving said tool along the surface that is to be milled, and means secured relative to said supporting and positioning means for guiding and supporting said tool substantially over its entire length of movement along said surface. Y Y

5. In a milling machine in combination, a reciprocable chuck, a pair of milling cutters mounted in spacedrelation in said chuck for rotation relativethereto and toV one another, means cooperative with said chuck for securing an article having a relatively deep recess thereinin such relation to said cutters that the lines of movement of said cutters when saidchuck is reciprocated will be substantially parallel the line of depth of the recess, and means cooperative with said article securing means for bracing said cutters substantially throughout the extent of their cutting movelnents.

6. In -a vmilling machine, a reciprocably mounted chuck, a pair of rotatable milling cutter spindles, each having a milling cutter secured to one end, rotatab-ly mounted at their opposite ends in said chuck, bearings for supporting said spindles substantially their full length and means relatively sta- Y tionary with respect to said chuck and spindles for guiding said cutters, against'the reaction caused by their engagement with the material being worked upon, substantially throughout the full extent of their Working movements.

7. In combination With a tool holding chuck and means for advancing said chuck, milling cutter spindles rotatably mounted at one end of each in saidchuck, a milling cutter mounted on the opposite end of each spindle, there being a relatively great distance between the milling cutters and said chuck, means secured to said chuck providing bearings for said spindles adjacent said cutters,

and means stationary relatively to said chuck for guiding said bearings during movements of said chuck.`

8. A device of the character described comprising, a positioning member having a surface for positioning hollow bodies and the like placed there'against, means for supporting a hollow body against said surface, means rigidly secured to said member tioned to project into a body supported against said surface'7 a tool for operating upon the interior surface o-f a body supported against said surface, said tool being bodily movable with respect to an innersurface of said hollow body and means associated with said rigidly secured means for guiding a tool during its movements relatively to said body surface.

In witness of the foregoing I aix my signature.

VICTOR E. FLODIN.

and posi- 

